[ SECRET POST #2324 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4324 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #619.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/H3QfHvp.png

[(Anonymous)]

hahaha yepppppppppppppppppppp

[bur]

In a nutshell.

[type_wild]

Honestly, that's part of why I'm vary about re-reading it too.

Polgara was my idol when I was a teenager, to the point where I don't know where I'd be today if I hadn't honed my shoddy English skills on reading Polgara the Sorceress. If I was "uh, okay" about the way that series went about women twenty years ago, I'm not sure I could stomach it at all today.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeeeah... bit of a shock rereading it as an adult and seeing how they parsed Barak and Merel's relationship...

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that was messed up. The book sort of acknowledged it, but in a way that really glossed over the issue of marital rape. In hindsight, it was also a little icky how often Ce'Nedra was described as both looking physically child-like AND as a saucy temptress. There's a theme of young-looking-for-their-age female characters who are romantically and sexually forward toward male characters in Eddings' work and it feels a touch creepy.

[tree_and_leaf]

Although compared to Piers Anthony, it's nothing. (Which is probably one reason why no-one noticed it was a bit creepy at the time).

[philstar22]

Yup. I only recently read these (well, only the first 3 so far). I like them in spite of this, but he really isn't great with female characters. Other than Polgara. I like her.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't remember when it occurs, but I'm pretty sure there's a time when Polgara flutters her eyelashes at Durnik to win an argument... just like every female character does at one time or another when they're arguing with men. Eddings thinks this is cute.

[(Anonymous)]

The real shocker to me was when it turned out that all the books were co-written with his wife Leigh. They decided just to use his name on the cover to "appeal to the audience", which, okay, but it really disturbed me considering all the stuff about how women are so mysterious and all the great sorceress Polgara wants to do is pop out babies and make soap. Soap, of all things! It's so fucking messy and gross (in pre-modern times)!

[type_wild]

Yeah, I never knew how to feel about that. Because one the one hand, Polgara's appreciation of physical labour contra using magic was always a point in her character that I liked.

On the other, there were the implications in how she became the no-nonsense matron of The Vale pretty much because she came to terms with the fact that she was A Woman (tm).

[philstar22]

Yes, that undertone is sketchy. But honestly, I love her anyway. She's my favorite character.

[type_wild]

I knoooooow. Pol is one of my favourite fictional women to this day *g*

[(Anonymous)]

It annoys me when people bring this up as a defense for the crappy female characters in the series... as if a woman co-writer couldn't possibly have anything to do with tired stereotypes about women.

[(Anonymous)]

I think they were Eddings' early works? I read a couple and found them pretty boring. Elenium and tamuli are infinitely better, and the female characters (particularly in Tamuli) are varied and fun.

[(Anonymous)]

IMO Eddings is right up there with Robert Jordan for their complex, in depth portrayals of female characters. /s

[(Anonymous)]

Robert Jordan gets a bad rap for this.

[(Anonymous)]

I read The Belgariad in high school because a couple of friends loaned them to me and insisted they were really, really good. I didn't have the hesrt to tell them i found the books pretty bland. The books were good enough yo keep me reading the series, but not good enough to want to check out more of his work. I remember absolutely nothing about the story.